One Eighty Stranger Things book Three

Chapter 3: The Case of The Missing Lifeguard

Everyone would think after all the craziness that's gone down in Hawkins, Indiana over the past couple of years that people would be more willing to believe each other, no matter how outlandish the story. A missing lifeguard? Mutant rats feeding on chemicals? Evil Russian spies at the mall? Weird electromagnetic activity? Sure, why not? Seems like just another day in Hawkins. But nope, people still want to plug their ears and go on pretending.

"We'll decide what's a real story and what's not," says Tom, the editor of the Hawkins Post. Nancy, who believes she's onto something big with the rat story, is berated for continuing to pursue her leads. As it turns out, Doris Driscoll isn't the only person in town who has experienced rodents stealing her chemical supplies.

And it's not only the rats on a feasting frenzy, as Nancy and Jonathan find out when they walk in on Mrs. Driscoll chowing down on a bag of fertilizer. But no matter how much evidence Nancy presents, her bosses laugh her off.

The newsroom is a hive of narrow-minded misogynists, who refuse to believe that a young woman is capable of doing anything other than pouring coffee. Will seemed to know about everything from the start, but he found everyone around him was blissfully unaware that the Upside Down was about to make another play for the bucolic Indiana town.

Everyone grew wary of their surroundings a few at a time, Nancy and Jonathan with the rats; Joyce with the magnets; and the Scoops Ahoy gang of Steve, Dustin, and Robin with the Russian messages. El's personal drama aside, the girl's have remained apart from the turmoil, and the good vibes of the previous trip to the mall, having invited Celeste over to El's house for a sleepover.
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Celeste took the home phone that her mom handed off, with Max on the other end, she couldn't wait to sleepover, more importantly she couldn't wait to get to know them more. It was new for Celeste to have other girls be in the party, but she loved it.

Even though El was constantly with Mike, but that was over with after El broke up with Mike that same day. "You coming over soon Celeste?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there in like twenty minutes or so." Celeste replied.

"Okay! See you soon." Max said, before hanging up the phone.

Celeste went downstairs and waved goodbye to Will, seeing that her brother and Lucas were asleep. But before she left she promised to Will that she'd play D&D with him when she came back.
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Celeste arrived at El's cabin and knocked on the door, greeted by Max, she let her in and they went to El's room, they were jamming along to music and reading teen magazines. "Hi El." Celeste greeted.

"Hi Celeste." El said.

"Oh, you found Ralph Macchio." Max said, seeing El flipping through a magazine.

"Macchio?" El questioned.

"Yeah, he's the Karate Kid. He's so hot, right? I bet he's an amazing kisser, too." Max said.

"Hey, uh... is Mike a good kisser?" Celeste rolled her eyes, did they not understand that they were talking about her brother?

"I don't know. He's my first boyfriend." El replied.

Max corrected, "Ex-boyfriend."

"Hey, don't worry about it. Okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness."

"I guarantee you, him and Lucas are, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now."

"They're like, "Oh, I hope they take us back." God, what I wouldn't give to see their stupid faces." El, Max and Celeste laughed.